The Culture of Bees and Contemporary Arab Culture

4-9-2018

-        I read a book... entitled "The Ordeal of a Forged Culture." by the Libyan writer Al-Sadiq Al-Nihum... In one of its chapters he questions what "contemporary Arab culture" means..? He invoked the culture of bees... to shed light... on the facts of bee society and Arab society... He stated that there is a resemblance between the bee and the human... that both live in a society... that needs to address them... but the wise bee does not speak... rather it dances... and through this dance... and the differences in its rhythm... and its location... the bee can "tell" the rest of the bees where it found the flowers... the distance of the road to them... the types available... their quantities... the degree of their growth.... And the bee cannot say anything more, because it simply has nothing else to say... for the language of dance is constrained by a very specific dictionary, because the needs of the bees themselves... are limited from the outset.. and if a bee should think of departing from this dictionary... and embroil itself in a dance whose meaning is... for example... that it is a "cultured bee"... demanding the freedom of bees... then its audience may greatly enjoy the dance... but it cannot understand it... because it is an audience instinctively immune to the idea of freedom itself......

-        As for our Arab human, in his developed language... he understands what is said to him, and ideas enter his head that have no relation... to his real needs... and since purely fanciful terms creep into the languages of the world... they mean nothing in the land of reality..... because they are a "magical" substitute for reality itself... And the phrase "contemporary Arab culture" is a magical word of this type...

-        It is a "political" "name"... like the name "the Arab homeland"... which came from nothing... to compensate for a nonexistent reality... for there is neither an Arab homeland as an administrative reality... nor does "contemporary Arab culture" have a relationship to all Arabs... We possess the name... but we do not possess what it signifies in reality... and it is a harsh intellectual ordeal... with roots in the world of... the child... who, instead of riding a horse, rides a chair called "the horse"... The term "contemporary Arab culture" is a childish term...

-        "The term" presupposes in advance that we possess a shared Arab heritage... while the reality is that we also possess a non-shared Arab heritage... which divides us legally into innumerable religious sects among them the Shiites... the Sunnis... the Ibadis... the Alawites... and dozens of other sects... which our Islamic heritage does not so much unite as the schools of jurisprudence separate them...

-        "The term.".. presumes that we possess a shared Arab history... while the reality is that we are Arabs divided... by at least five histories.... "A religious history"... which begins with Adam and Eve... and the second "a natural history"... which does not acknowledge that beginning... and the third "a Sunni history.".. which considers Muawiya a legitimate caliph... and the fourth "a Shiite history"... which considers Muawiya an impostor... and the fifth "a modern history".... which currently divides us into more than twenty-two states... each state having a history separate from the other ... "behind iron gates"... under the guard of "border men"..

-        "The term" presupposes that we speak one language.. while the reality is that what is actually said differs from state to state as much as one language differs from another.. for the one who calls for peace with Israel... does not understand the one who calls... for resistance... even if they speak a common language

-        "The term" borrows the idea that we are Arabs sharing a single fate, and this is an emotional idea... related to the love of commiseration rather than a love of reality.. and the advent of oil proved how much our fates can differ... despite our mythical "shared fate"... to the point that an Arab citizen who is bankrupt and hungry... and barefoot... can live within a stone's throw... of another Arab citizen who squanders immeasurable wealth... on gambling and prostitution and buying servants..... without a single just law restraining him...

-        Yesterday, I watched the talk show Al-Hour... 3-9-2018. on Al-Mayadeen channel... with the venerable actor Duraid Lahham. He is the one who enriched his Arab homeland... with critical social thought... on the purposeful Syrian stage... and who stood with the downtrodden of the Arab peoples.. He belonged to the Arab homeland... with unparalleled enthusiasm.. we remember his plays... and we have them memorized by heart, how he embodied the reality of peoples in the Arab countries... and what the regimes practiced of oppression... He was, at the end of the episode with the presenter... yesterday... in pain over what happened in his country Syria... indeed our country all together... when he said that Syria is the country of all Arabs.. and that the Arab countries are the homeland of every Arab... and he believed that deeply and this belief ran through our hearts and minds... across all corners of the Arab world... But the Arab artist Duraid was disappointed by his Arab brothers... the Arabs destroyed his country... they conspired against Syrian Arabness... the Syrian people were subjected to abuse... and displaced as a result... of the intervention of the brothers of yesterday... who have become.... enemies... He advised his Syrian people... not to emigrate.. and quoted a phrase from a book by the writer Ghada Al-Samman... "If you emigrate... do not try to take the trees of your land... with you to shelter under their shade in exile... for trees in reality do not emigrate."!!!!.. He was sad... and in pain over the reality of his national and pan-Arab world..... Arab nationalism, in the sense we learned it, was shaken... by the hands of kin... And the venerable actor wondered whether abandonment had extended to include the Arab peoples... How did a dispute occur between two Gulf countries in recent times.... when in the past the Arab peoples would fill the streets to express their opposition to any dispute between Arabs.. or to take the side of an oppressed Arab people.. Yet astonishingly the peoples in the Gulf, and in other regions of the Arab world.... rose up, each people to defend its own ruling system.. and not to mediate between the two feuding regimes...... They mobilized the peoples to speak the concepts of their rulers.... Arab Yemeni children die... killed at the hands of the sheikhs of Arabness.. and the brethren of Islam... under pretexts... in the dictionary... of "Arab legitimacy.. the amended."

-        In Libya and in Syria and in Iraq... and in Egypt... destruction was carried out in the name of change... by Arab hands... and with Arab money... and with Arab soldiers...... and in silence... even on Muslim holidays, the brothers... the victims were children and old men and women.... Arabs and مسامون... Gaza was besieged... and completely closed off... and no crossing remained open except one closed as well, except Rafah... Egyptian Arab Rafah... yet it was more strictly closed than the Israeli crossings.!!!.. and other events... in widely separated sites of the Arab world.... while all Arab leaders speak at Arab League conferences about unity of destiny and shared heritage... in addition to language....... Palestine was the Arabs' primary cause... and is no longer so now....... And "creative chaos" continues to work to create a new Middle East, not Arab but a Middle East of all countries in it.. even if they do not speak Arabic... It is a new map after a century from the time of the first map Sykes-Picot.....

-        Our contemporary Arab culture.... does not possess the horse, and it does not have a shared language.. and it does not have a shared history... and it does not address all Arabs... and it cannot change their reality.. because it is a translated culture in the absence of the Arabs themselves

-        How can an intellectual who does not have the right to speak, in a society that does not have the right to publish,... under an authority that does not favor the exchange of ideas.... change what belongs to his profession?

-        A lone intellectual who cannot guarantee people's right to express their opinion... his mission is to guarantee people's rights, and to defend them "with a pencil of lead".. against brutal police regimes... that fight "with bullets"... and to tell them openly.. what no one can bear to hear secretly....!!!

-        The contemporary Arab intellectual... takes off his hat... in respect before everything in our old museum.... supports the rulers... and justifies their... lethal mistakes.. praises their achievements... in the newspapers... sings for them... dances for them.... paints for them... plans for them... curses their opponents... supports the men of religion.. and praises the history of the Islamic state... sometimes from the Shiite point of view, and sometimes from the Sunni point of view... The contemporary Arab intellectual has no enemies because he is an intellectual without a cause....!!!... We do not speak the truth.... and if we do speak it.. it is after it is too late... after lifting the classification of secrecy... from documents and treaties that took place... fifty years ago... or seventy years ago.. with the knowledge of some of our leaders..... to dismantle the Arab world....

-        Extracted with alteration... and God is the source of intent...